A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its “widest-reaching” system for developing intelligence from the internet.

The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of NSA surveillance programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents in response to the Guardian’s earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and Fisa surveillance court oversight.

The files shed light on one of Snowden’s most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10.

“I, sitting at my desk,” said Snowden, could “wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email”.

US officials vehemently denied this specific claim. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, said of Snowden’s assertion: “He’s lying. It’s impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do.”

But training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed.

XKeyscore, the documents boast, is the NSA’s “widest reaching” system developing intelligence from computer networks – what the agency calls Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). One presentation claims the program covers “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet”, including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata.

Analysts can also use XKeyscore and other NSA systems to obtain ongoing “real-time” interception of an individual’s internet activity.

FOX NEWS: The federal government is hiring what it calls a “Behavioral Insights Team” that will look for ways to subtly influence people’s behavior, according to a document describing the program obtained by FoxNews.com. Critics warn there could be unintended consequences to such policies, while supporters say the team could make government and society more efficient. While the program is still in its early stages, the document shows the White House is already working on such projects with almost a dozen federal departments and agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture. “Behavioral sciences can be used to help design public policies that work better, cost less, and help people to achieve their goals,” reads the government document describing the program, which goes on to call for applicants to apply for positions on the team. The document was emailed by Maya Shankar, a White House senior adviser on social and behavioral sciences, to a university professor with the request that it be distributed to people interested in joining the team. The idea is that the team would “experiment” with various techniques, with the goal of tweaking behavior so people do everything from saving more for retirement to saving more in energy costs. The document praises subtle policies to change behavior that have already been implemented in England, which already has a “Behavioral Insights Team.” One British policy concerns how to get late tax filers to pay up. “Sending letters to late taxpayers that indicated a social norm — i.e., that ‘9 out of 10 people in Britain paid their taxes on time’ — resulted in a 15 percent increase in response rates over a three-month period, rolling out to £30 million of extra annual revenue,” the document reads. Another policy aimed to convince people to install attic insulation to conserve energy. “Offering an attic-clearance service (at full cost) to people led to a five-fold increase in their subsequent adoption of attic-insulation.”
,br> Such policies — which encourage behavior subtly rather than outright require it — have come to be known as “nudges,” after an influential 2008 book titled “Nudge” by former Obama regulatory czar Cass Sunstein and Chicago Booth School of Business professor Richard Thaler popularized the term. The term “nudge” has already been associated with the new program, as one professor who received Shankar’s email forwarded it to others with the note: “Anyone interested in working for the White House in a ‘nudge’ squad? The UK has one and it’s been extraordinarily successful.” Richard Thaler told FoxNews.com that the new program sounds good. “I don’t know who those people are who would not want such a program, but they must either be misinformed or misguided,” he said. “The goal is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government by using scientifically collected evidence to inform policy designs. What is the alternative? The only alternatives I know are hunches, tradition, and ideology (either left or right.)” But some economists urge caution. “I am very skeptical of a team promoting nudge policies,” Michael Thomas, an economist at Utah State University, told FoxNews.com. “Ultimately, nudging … assumes a small group of people in government know better about choices than the individuals making them.” And sometimes, he added, government actually promotes the wrong thing. “Trans-fats were considered better than saturated and unsaturated fats in the past. Now we know this is an error.” Every intervention would need to be tested to make sure it works well, said Harvard economics professor David Laibson, who studies behavioral economics and is in touch with the people in government setting up the program. He added that the exact way the team will function is currently unknown.

Weiner campaign in meltdown as his spokesperson publicly brands former intern a ‘s***bag’ and ‘fame hungry b****’ in hate-filled rant
Communication director Barbara Morgan couldn’t contain her anger over Olivia Nuzzi’s article about Weiner’s faltering New York mayoral campaign
Nuzzi claimed many interns only joined the campaign to get close to Huma Abedin ahead of Hillary Clinton’s expected 2016 presidential run
She said Weiner mistakenly called her and other interns Monica
Morgan called Nuzzi a series a expletives, apparently unaware that her rant was ‘on the record’
She has since issued an apology and said she contacted Nuzzi to personally say she was sorry

In a unanimous vote last night, the San Diego City Council denied Mayor Filthy Filner’s request for San Diego taxpayers to pay his legal expenses. Filner and San Diego are being sued by his former employee, Irene McCormack Jackson. The Council also voted to sue Filner for any costs the city would have to pay out in the lawsuit.

KIM KARDASHIAN’s crying her eyes out because ruthless mom-ager KRIS JENNER just escalated her ever-worsening war with Kim’s hothead baby-daddy KANYE WEST, hitting a disgusting new low in family exploitation when she went public posing with a newborn “rent-a-baby” to promote her new TV show, insinuating the infant was KimYe newborn NORTH WEST – who “might” be making an appearance!